s I sit in front of my computer for the first time in 2024 (it’s January 2nd … still shaking off the holiday relaxation vibes!), typing my first editorial of the year, I’m simultaneously reflecting on the 30-plus years I’ve spent doing this monthly ritual—but more importantly, how that ritual, and its subsequent implementation for public consumption, has changed over the last three decades.

While email and its evil giver of life, the Internet, came into prominent public use the very year I began my career in 1993, its usage in the publishing industry as far as I was concerned took a couple years—but even then, it was little more than a convenient communication tool, if that. I typed my editorial on a glorified word processor, printed it out on dot matrix paper, it was read and (sometimes heavily) corrected by a copy editor, and then a copy of it via floppy disc was hand carried to the art director to be prepared for publication (the last part is the only aspect that similarly continues to this day!).

I found a common thread in my monthly editorials: stirring the pot, so to speak … not so much getting people riled up (though that occasionally was the result!) but getting people to talk. And with a monthly magazine, that “talk” wouldn’t occur till at least three months after I’d initially written said editorial—at which point, I’d already whipped out two more, so it wasn’t uncommon for me to forget what controversy I’d stirred up until I began getting letters in the mail … which we’d oftentimes print another three months later! See where I’m going with the time frame aspect? It wouldn’t be long before email—and the Internet—would change the game entirely.

As soon as chat rooms and message boards became in vogue, every gearhead with a keyboard became a virtual expert … OK, not every single one, but quite a few. And when/if I said something that someone didn’t agree with—watch out. And oh boy did I make the mistake of engaging in some rather heated online exchanges defending my “word.” But that was only natural for a twentysomething fireplug who, at the time, somewhat enjoyed confrontation, which, oftentimes, got me in hot water with my elders who truly knew better!

While the primary process of creating periodicals hasn’t really changed, it has actually become a much smaller part of the entire process in which we communicate with people when you look at the big picture. I can’t tell you the last time I sat down and wrote a letter to someone—but at the same time, I can’t count how many emails I write on a daily basis (not to mention texts!). Our content creativity has expanded way beyond the pages of each magazine, but at the end of each day, the magazine is what I personally take the most pride in … the printed version.

When we started this company, we set out to create a “digital” empire, with a printed magazine produced to support that venture as it took virtual flight. Well, four years later, I’m proud to say that “support” method is kicking some serious butt, and while I’ve still yet to sit down and write an actual letter, I anticipate all the input from readers far and wide—good, bad, and/or indifferent!